The World Digital Library makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy digitized cultural treasures from around the world. Resources include manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings. Browse by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or use the open-ended search available in many languages. Information included with items includes a description, place of event or item, date, location of the item, and tags for viewing items similar in nature or topic. Move the timeline to view items for specific time periods.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a resource for viewing and learning about the many cultural treasures around the world. Display the site on your interactive whiteboard or projector to view images and documents from American and World History. Have students choose an item of interest to research further and then share using a tool like Zoho Show (similar to Powerpoint, but easier and free) - reviewed here. World language teachers can underscore culture lessons using these resources or have students explore and share their findings.

Learn more about the Civil War. Information on people, battles, culture and more is provided. Though the site is South Carolina specific, the links provide lots of general information about the Civil War and offer a different perspective than that of "northerners." This collection is listed in the "elementary" section of this site but reading levels in some resources are more appropriate for older students.

In the Classroom

Use this site to explore the many aspects of the Civil War. Watch a short video from the "Price of Freedom" link to introduce your students to the Civil War. Use the culture section to explore woman's fashion of the Civil War era. See what woman were doing while the men were at home. Partner weaker readers with stronger ones to manage the text passages. Have students write a letter from the perspective of a wife, mother or sister to a soldier using the Letter Writing Generator (reviewed here).

Open a door to tour worldwide locations with this intriguing site. Clicking on the door transports you to indoor spaces from all over the world using a Google StreetMap mashup. Click on the door again (or click "take me somewhere else") to be transported to another place. Visit famous landmarks, museums, and more. What a treat! The entire Secret Door interaction can be embedded in your blog or wiki using the embed code provided by clicking "embed this." Secret Door is random, so going to the same place again could be tricky. To return later to the same location, make a note of the location in top left (or copy it). Use Google Maps (reviewed here), search for the location that was named in the top left corner, and use Streetview (drag the little orange man on top of the landmark to look inside).

In the Classroom

Teacher-librarians can use this to inspire research or non-fiction reading by embedding it in their website or displaying it on a computer in the media center! Use this site to learn drawing inferences about each of the places visited. Use the images as a class or in groups to determine where in the world it is located using clues from the picture. You will want to "hide" the location that shows in the top left corner. This is a great introduction into culture, building, design, etc. Project an image on an Interactive Whiteboard as a prompt for a short story, poem, or essay inspired by the image. Share an image as your students enter the classroom as the daily "travel mystery." Give your students 2-3 minutes of time to investigate WHERE the image is from. Brainstorm how the image is related to a story being discussed in class, a unit of study, or parallels to our culture. What creatures and cultures would be seen in this place? Ask and answer interesting questions related to the images. Teachers of gifted can use these images to inspire creation of text-based games to take place in these settings using descriptive writing and a tool such as Quest, reviewed here, or Playfic, reviewed here.

Comments

Very cool, easy to use site for when you have a few minutes. I think the age range could be k-12 as my 4 year old loved seeing where the door would take us. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it is really hard to get back to a place that you previously visited.Diane, PA, Grades: 0 - 4

Find downloadable worksheets correlated to Common Core curriculum. Visit the math link for practice with all operations and many topic areas (balancing equations, many forms of graphs, fractions, grids, lines, line plots, geometry, measurement, money, negative numbers, time, and SO much more)! In social studies find worksheets on geography, primary and secondary sources, and timelines. Language arts includes parts of speech and sentence types. Under each subject choose easy, medium, or hard worksheets. In Create a Review, choose your topic area and create your own worksheet. Also included are brain teasers, bingo games, and multiplication mazes.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Find worksheets for every subject to better prepare your students for Common Core standards and testing. Use the sheets to make a formative or even summative assessment for many different topics in math. Use as a review or even practice. Provide this link on your class website for students (and parents) to find extra practice. Printable answer keys come with the worksheets. Allow students to create their own quizzes. Easy to use, grade, and share. Use for gifted students needing some acceleration. Use for extra practice with students struggling with new concepts.

Find and choose from 100's of online coloring pages sorted into categories at The Color. Choose from holiday categories, colors, alphabet, occupations, continents, dinosaurs, nursery rhymes, numbers, and much more. Click on an image to begin coloring. You can color online or print the page to color on paper. Share finished images via email using the link provided. Registration isn't necessary, but if you register you may save finished projects for later viewing.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Bookmark this site as a resource for coloring pages in many different topics. Share a link to the site with parents for practice at home. Color pictures of the continents during geography lessons. Explore the dinosaur coloring pages during dinosaur month.

Find and learn about almost 100,000 historic places in North America pinned on Google Maps. Click on place markers to view additional information on each location. Most include a link to further information at an independent site. Use the search box to find historic places by city or state. Zoom in and out on the map to view placemarks by state or location. Don't forget to view "Street View" by clicking and dragging the "orange guy" where you want to go!

In the Classroom

Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Take your students to "ground level" by using Street View. Create a scavenger hunt for important places and challenge students to locate them on this site. Have students research historical sites in your town or those related to events studied in Social Studies class. If you teach about states or regions of the U.S. or Canada, this is a great resource for students to eplore in small groups. Have students create maps using Animaps (reviewed here). Students can add text, images, and location stops describing historic events.

Come aboard and explore the Titanic from construction through the disaster and the aftermath. Read tales of survivors. Explore the different accommodations, food, and activities for the first, second, and third class passengers. Take a look at a route map or timeline using links on each side of the interactive title. Each section of the interactive includes the story of events as well as captioned images, videos, and video animations of events. Be sure to check out links to related activities located on the site such the Titanic by the Numbers interactive and related video clips.

In the Classroom

Take your class on an adventure as you explore this website using your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this Titanic Interactive as an extension lesson for middle and high school students studying early 20th Century History. If you use this site with upper elementary students, you will want to pair a better read with weaker readers since much of the information is in text form. Include the Titanic as one of many topics for twentieth century "decades" research projects. Use this site for any students reading a novel or nonfiction about the Titanic. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook from the perspective of one of the cruisers onboard.

Browse over 30,000 free ebook (pdf format) titles and games available for immediate download at CurrClick! Scroll through the book list or choose from specific publishers to search for titles. Topics range from basic phonics readers to the Declaration of Independence to many others! Some of the topics are religious based (mostly Christian). If you are in a public school, you may want to avoid those topics. Narrow your search by choosing the link to free ebooks. Enter your search term to find available titles. Appropriate ages for each book are provided as you scroll through. Add desired books to your cart. Create an account using your email and password and then check out. After check out, titles are available for immediate download in PDF format.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Bookmark this site for use throughout the year for materials to use with any unit. Check back often, as new titles may be added! Display documents on your projector or interactive whiteboard to teach almost any language arts skills: highlighting parts of speech, subject/predicate, etc. Teacher notetaking or working with informational texts using these free texts. Be sure to use the FREE search to avoid paid texts. This would be a good site to share with students on your class website, blog, or wiki.

This American Presidents website contains lesson plans for teaching about each of the US presidents all the way through Barack Obama. The site uses the informational text about each president to teach, reinforce, and review English language concepts. The site is directly geared toward ESL/ELL students. However, all users will benefit from materials provided. Choose any president to view a short biography. There are also language lessons such as fill in the blank and writing activities. Choose from links at the top of the page to print the lesson in PDF format, hear the article read in mp3 format, and view additional activities such as flash cards and word jumbles. Although heavy in advertising, this site is worth a look as a resource for activities and lessons about US presidents.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Bookmark and save this site as a resource to accompany US presidents units or to supplement current materials used in teaching about the presidents. This is a great tool to use in English/language arts class for nonfiction readings. If you want to remove distracting advertisements, use a tool such as Readability (reviewed here). Print activities and biographies about several different presidents to add to your substitute folder. Share this site with ESL/ELL and Special Education teachers as a resource for materials.

Civil War 150 is part of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. The site includes online exhibits, videos, educational resources, and blog posts. Choose from any topics to explore links that include images, photographs, short essays, and also videos. Also available is a large series of lectures and podcasts given by historians on diverse topics such as Lincoln's Beard - Why Did He Grow It? and Stonewall Jackson, Portrait in a Minute. Some podcasts are in video and they range in length from 3 minutes to almost an hour and a half. Some of the videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Listen to podcasts in your classroom and view videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students use Fakebook (reviewed here) to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a Civil War soldier or important person from that time. Have students create timelines of Civil War events (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Capzles (reviewed here).

The 360Cities panoramas are a new way to showcase places, businesses, and events from around the world. Looking for a new virtual field trip? 360Cities will have your students spinning in circles with excitement. The pictures are out of this world! View 360 degree panoramic pictures from Mars or under the sea. Travel to snowy mountain tops and many more of the Internet's largest collection of uploaded panoramic images. 360Cities panoramic aerial shots are also available as well as navigable views of cities, natural landscapes, and more. The most popular panoramic pictures are listed for your convenience. This website has panoramic views of all Seven Wonders of the World, which include the Colosseum in Rome, The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, The Taj Mahal in India, Machu Picchu in Peru, Christ Redeemer in Rio, and Chichen Itza in Mexico. Are you looking for a site to showcase your own panoramic shots or do you want to learn how to take panoramic shots? 360Cities "how to" section offers tools to create and upload your own panoramic pictures. View the existing pictures for free or use an email address to create a free account to upload your own panoramic pictures. Paid upgrades are available. 360Cities also has an app for iOS devices. View the 360Cities blog linked on the site for more information.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

The 360Cities panoramic pictures provide a vivid visual experience to enhance any lesson. Students can search and view the panoramic setting of a reading passage or novel. Need to paint a picture for students about a historical topic? View the image on 360Cities. Activate schema with these vivid images. Bring Science to life as you explore the many natural wonders of our world and even space. Explore these exciting worlds through the panoramic pictures. Visit businesses and famous landmarks around the world for a free virtual tour. Looking for creative writing prompts? Use the images for poems or story starters. Teaching geometry? Have students locate geometric figures in the pictures. Provide students an image and challenge them to create a virtual tour as they explore the image. Use web 2.0 tools or the students' artistic talents to create travel brochures for the panoramic pictures. Record the tours as a screencast or present orally. Use the "how-to" section to have your students create their own panoramic pictures. Take a panoramic shot of your classroom to post on your website or blog. Use DSLR cameras or cell phones to create your panoramic pictures.

Szoter is an online tool for annotating images stored on your computer or screenshots from your computer. Use this site directly on the web or download the Adobe Air version that runs on your desktop. Launch then choose from options to annotate such as load local image, capture camera image, make screenshot, or load image url. After your image loads, choose from editing options such as scaling image, drawing tools such as lines, arrows, and circles, and add text. When finished, save to your computer or publish and share to Twitter, Facebook, or copy the url provided.

In the Classroom

Capture a screenshot of websites or software and annotate with directions for student use. Have students label and identify objects in an image. Label parts of a plant, continents, landforms, etc. Practice new words in a different language by asking students to label and identify objects in that language. Create a storyboard using several annotated images as a story starter. Art students can annotate images to point out design elements or annotate images of their own work to talk about the creative decisions they made. Share annotated Szoter images on your class website or blog to tell about a field trip or class event.

Join lyrical rhyming adventures of history in poetry! Find poems summarizing famous people or periods from history. Explore the topics in the left sidebar: Ancient History, Middle Ages, British History, American History, Myths & Legends, and Pirates. The American History poems include: The California Gold Rush, The Statue of Liberty, The Moon Landing, The Voyage of the Mayflower, The Boston Tea Party, and a few others. Each poem includes additional facts about the event or people, along with drawings submitted by students. You will also find coloring pages, interviews, jokes, and more. Be aware: this site does include a lot of advertisements. At the time of this review, all advertisements were completely "kid-appropriate." However, it may be wise to advise students not to click on any of the links/pictures.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Make history (and mythology) come alive in your classroom with a little rhythm and rhyme! Use the poems to supplement your instruction while even adding tambourines, clapping, tapping, or toe tapping reaching all learners. Share the actual poem on your projector or Interactive whiteboard. If you want students to have a hard copy of the poem (to use as a study guide), print it out. Otherwise, save paper and share the link on your class website. If you can't find the history or mythology topic you are studying, it is time for your students to make their own rhymes. Have students create poems for photos and images using UtellStory, reviewed here. This tool allows narrating and adding text to a picture.To find Creative Commons images for student poems (with credit, of course), try PhotoPin, reviewed here. Have a poetry day featuring what you have studied in history. Be sure to add your students' projects to your class website or blog. Gifted students will enjoy the challenge while struggling learners will enjoy the reinforcement of the main ideas.

AwesomeStories is a one stop shop of primary source materials. It is a gathering place of sources located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies and government-created websites. The site includes documents, videos, audio clips and narrations. Topics range from the Women's Movement to Emperor Penguins to Abraham Lincoln to the Easter Story (through medieval/renaissance art) and much more. Search by biography, disaster, trials, flicks, history, philosophy, sports, or the arts. You can also search by lesson plans, narrations, slide shows, videos, images, audio clips, documentaries, and more! You can also take advantage of the Visual Vocabulary to learn vocabulary related to many of the stories and video clips available at this site.

In the Classroom

Use this rich site to support your social studies, history, science, language arts classroom and many others! There is a lot here to explore and many diverse topics. Use the Visual Vocabulary Builder to introduce your students to new vocabulary in a different way. Middle and high schoolers could use the movies to teach about character development and themes. The site includes several lesson plans that help you teach with current movies. Have your students use the site to find historical images to use in presentations. (Be sure to check the licensing on any image you use and cite it properly.) Project the video clips using an interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce students to a unit of study. Challenge small groups of students to explore one of the topics presented at this site and share their "story" with the rest of the class. Have students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Thinglink, reviewed here. Many texts on this site are also useful examples of informational texts for practice of Common Core standards.

Find and print many useful charts at Chart Jungle. Topics include story starters, homework charts, reading logs, and more. Chart Jungle also includes alphabet and number flash cards to print and use. Other interesting printables include the digestive system, clocks, and skeletons. Choose any chart to print directly from your computer. Although this site does include a lot of advertisements, there are many timesavers and treasures.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use Chart Jungle as a resource for charts for use throughout the school year. Familiarize yourself with this site at the beginning of the school year. Use the reading chart for students to record the minutes spent reading at home. Use the homework charts to help your students stay organized. Share the flash cards link with parents to use at home.

This is an extensive "hotlist" of sites and lessons to be used on the SMART Board. In addition there are many tutorials to help you learn about the SMART Board. This collection covers mainly grades K-5 and all subject areas. However, there are also some resources for secondary level. The topics vary greatly, and the quantity of websites is impressive. Some items will require you to have Smart Board software installed on your computer to open the files. Some files will work using the SMART Notebook Express online viewer reviewed here. Some of the resources shared are created in the United Kingdom. American English speakers may notice some slight spelling differences. Please note: some of the resources are websites that could be used on any brand of interactive whiteboard (or computer) and are not strictly Smart Board resources.

In the Classroom

These lessons are great for the new SMART Board user or the seasoned pro. Stop and think before you start about how to use them in a student centered lesson, trying some of the lesson formats that help you avoid being "Vanna." View the lessons as is or use them to help you create your own lesson. Use the training videos to help your teaching peers and new SMART Board users learn how to use the SMART Board. Many of these tools could be used on any brand of Interactive Whiteboard.

Picture History contains licensed digital images covering 200 years of American History. Search the site using the search box or browse by category, decade, photographer, or anniversary. Images include information on the subject, date (or approximate date), and image size. Additional topics include nature, life cycles, politics & government, science, health, medicine, and much more. Be aware that these are copyrighted images intended for SALE. This means that Fair Use does not apply because you would be taking away the owner's opportunity to earn income from this property. Register to download high resolution images without watermarks (this option requires a fee). You can send an "e-card" using an image. Click the envelope below the image to send.

In the Classroom

Bookmark and save this site to share during classroom lessons on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Share with students as a place to explore to "get the picture" of various events in American History. Use the opportunity to explain why some sites charge for image downloads as a business venture and that taking them, even with a watermark, would be like "stealing." Have students send an e-card of an image to the entire class, written as a participant in the historic event. Use a whole-class email account to send and receive them.

The Literacy Design Collaborative supports the development of literacy through a series of templates for use with text when writing. There are also templates for other subjects. Most templates address secondary levels; however, other offerings contain some elementary templates. Template tasks allow you to fill in the blank with learning skills addressed. When completed, you create and produce a high-quality assignment. Three collections are available by choosing the tasks link: the template task collection II, Common Core template tasks, and K-2 template tasks. Use links provided to view instructions and download templates in PDF format. Choose the modules link to view and download complete modules for instruction for English, Science, and Social Studies. Also available at the Literacy Design Collaborative is a series of videos demonstrating changing teacher practice and literacy. Most of the videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to school (or your meeting) "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

This site is an excellent resource for schools implementing Common Core Standards. Share this site during professional development sessions to view and learn how to use the templates and modules in the classroom. Share the videos on an interactive whiteboard and have groups discuss afterwards. View videos from the site during these sessions to understand the framework behind the templates. Download templates and modules for use in your classroom for any content or use templates as a model for creating your own templates.

"Picturing U.S. History" helps you use visual evidence to learn about the past. The subtitle "Lessons in Looking" tells it all. The lessons are very detailed and flexible. Primary source media includes: photographs, drawings, paintings, political cartoons, print media, statuary, furniture, and collectibles. Additional links provide explanations of historical and culture behind the images used at the site.

In the Classroom

The "Lessons on Looking" can be used for a single class period or over several periods. Using a projector or interactive whiteboard, use the zoom tool to look at one aspect of the picture and have students interpret the image. Challenge your students to create a web exhibit collection about a historical topic using a tool such as Bag The Web (reviewed here). Students can share all of the important links, information, and even brief descriptions that they find on this site.

Jump aboard to learn American folk history songs and music with Lomax, the Hound of Music (inspired by Alan Loman, a famous folk artist). Join the hound puppet Lomax, Delta the cat, and their 2 humans on a train traveling across America exploring music. The site features activities that incorporate melody matching, musical selections to listen to, and video clips from the PBS television series. Find lesson plans, activity guides, and educational philosophies to make the most of the interactive experiences to learn both music narratives and problem solving.

In the Classroom

Use this in the classroom to inspire singing and music while learning and developing young minds. Share the activities and/or videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Try the activity Melody Match in a primary music class learning about melody and rhythm. Check out the lesson plans and activity guides for more engaging ideas. Create your own songs with your class too!